Rivers Governor Wike Declares Wednesday Public Holiday for President-Elect Tinubu’s Visit

Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has declared Wednesday, May 3, 2023, a public holiday in Rivers State, to enable the  people of the State give the President-Elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a rousing welcome.

Wike, who made the declaration on Tuesday, in a state broadcast, said during Tinubu’s presidential campaign visit to Rivers State, he had  indicated intention to have him commission some strategic projects in the state after the general election.

The Rivers State governor said during his two days official visit to the state, the president-elect would commission the Rumuola/Rumuokwuta Flyover and the ultra-modern Magistrates’ Court Complex, Port Harcourt, today and tomorrow.

He said a formal invitation was sent to the president-elect after the general election, which he graciously accepted, and explained that the proposed visit would be Tinibu’s first official visit to any state since he emerged as the President-elect of Nigeria.

According to him,  by this visit, Tinubu would join the long list of distinguished Nigerians the state had hosted to either flag off or commission landmark projects.

 Meanwhile the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, has distanced itself from any involvement in the committee set up by Governor Nyesom Wike in preparation for the visit of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu to the state.

Tinubu is scheduled to commission the Rumuola/Rumuokwuta Flyover and the ultra-modern Magistrates’ Court Complex, Port Harcourt, today and tomorrow, Thursday.

However, in a statement by spokesperson of the APC in Rivers, Darlington Nwauju, the party said the president-elect would be in the state on a private visit.

“Our attention has been drawn to media reports and innuendos circulating in the media space concerning the visit of our President-elect, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu to Rivers State.

“While the Rivers State Chapter of the APC wholeheartedly welcomes our president-elect and appreciates his work ethic of getting firsthand knowledge of the various sub-nationals, we, however, wish to clarify that this is a private visit on the invitation of the Rivers State Government controlled by the PDP and has nothing to do with APC in Rivers State.

“We challenge the governor being an outgoing Governor to play less of divisive politics and exercise restraint in planting seeds of discord amongst opposition political parties.

“We are aware that the Governor has been working so hard to paint a false perception of collapse of the APC structure in Rivers State even when he had in previous well-documented interviews vowed never to have anything to do with a ‘cancer party (APC)’.

“We believe that it is morally wrong to always seek to be politically correct even when government should be serious business and access to the instrumentality of power should be to the public good rather than patronage to lackeys and minions.

“We are aware of Governor Wike’s plot to prank our president-elect into believing his false narrative that there is no other opposition political party existing in Rivers State. Rivers people already know this is not the correct situation on ground.

“Rivers State APC lost four of its members on the 18th of March 2023 and we still expect the Police in Rivers State to tell the world who the sponsors and killers of our members are. No member of our party can dance on the graves of our fallen heroes by joining Governor Wike to mock those who lost their lives, except of course, those who Governor Wike financially induced to act as moles while claiming to be APC members. 

“Rivers APC is focused on pursuing justice by challenging the outcome of the flawed March 18th 2023 elections at the Elections Petitions Tribunal and cannot be distracted by the antics of Governor Wike and his co-travellers.”

Nwauju, therefore, clarified further that the leadership of APC in the state was neither part of the governor’s Transition Committee nor Committee set up for the visit of the President-elect.

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